Question and answer with the Natick candidates

This is the second of two question and answers with the four candidates running for three open seats on the School Committee. We asked the candidates to keep their answers to within 300 words. Below is the question for this week and the candidates’ responses. Town election is April 9.

Wicked Local

Writer

Posted Apr. 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 5, 2013 at 5:11 AM

Posted Apr. 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 5, 2013 at 5:11 AM

» Social News

This is the second of two question and answers with the four candidates running for three open seats on the School Committee. We asked the candidates to keep their answers to within 300 words. Below is the question for this week and the candidates’ responses. Town election is April 9.

QUESTION:With the district already struggling to fund what it calls critical positions for the schools while meeting the coming year’s budget – and with that struggle likely to become more difficult in subsequent years with a growing student body – what measures should the town take to ensure that its growing school system is adequately funded and has enough teachers for its classrooms?

Anne Blanchard

The growing student population is a natural outgrowth of the town’s attractiveness and affordability. The School Committee and the Selectmen need to offer Natick citizens options for preserving these qualities.

Continued prudent fiscal management of what we already have is the first priority. A proactive approach to capital investments can help control maintenance and repair costs of our facilities. As chair of the Advisory Board on Facility Consolidation, I helped lead the creation of a consolidated town/school facilities management department which takes a town-wide view of all building investment and repair priorities. School investments in solar energy and fuel efficient heating systems have helped control heating and electrical costs. Despite the high cost of fuel, overall transportation costs have been controlled. With respect to labor agreements, I have supported shorter contract durations, affordable COLA’s, and encouraged higher union participation in covering healthcare costs.

Flexibility to reallocate student populations to where there is available space can also help control costs. The Committee is currently reviewing a policy change for redistricting that gives more flexibility to the Administration in student assignments.

Neighborhood schools help build our community, and it would be a mistake to undermine them. Johnson is a magnet for residential settlement downtown, and this in turn, helps local businesses. The School Committee and the town should actively support commercial and industrial investment which can help offset the cost of providing an excellent education.

Natick generously passed an operating override, and a debt exclusion to build the Senior Center and the new High School. I would only consider asking taxpayers to support another override if I were convinced that revenues and the school needs were permanently out of alignment, and that all other options for raising revenue were exhausted. I ask readers to vote for me on April 9th. www.electanneblanchard.com

Thomas Campbell

Natick’s student population is growing. Without careful planning to address that challenge, student/teacher ratios could reach unacceptable levels and school buildings could become overcrowded. Those outcomes would adversely affect student learning and achievement. Therefore, we must take responsible action to manage school resources.

Page 2 of 3 -
Our school system faces financial stressors in addition to enrollment growth. For example, teachers and other staff receive contractually-mandated pay increases, and energy costs also continue to increase. Federal grants and other forms of assistance are expected to decline in this year’s budget cycle, and the full effects of sequestration are not yet known. State funding is a crucial resource but it also varies from year to year.

Despite these challenges, Natick has been able to improve instruction and student achievement while actually decreasing per-pupil student expenditures over the past three years.

Notwithstanding strained budgetary circumstances, Natick’s schools have benefited from careful planning and resource management. The most important of those resources are the teachers. No matter where the classrooms are located or how many students they contain, the quality of teaching is the ultimate ingredient in student success. Therefore, we must continue to hire and retain the most successful teachers, and we must continue to provide them with the highest levels of support that are feasible.

Provided that our school administrators demonstrate careful management and prudent allocation of resources, Natick’s voters and taxpayers have always supported our schools. School administrators and School Committee members have to earn community support with open access to information and demonstrated management skill. Communication and advocacy by the School Committee are essential. Our community’s support for our students is directly tied to its confidence in our school’s administrators.

Tom Campbell is a practicing lawyer, Natick business owner and parent of three Natick Public School Students.

Timothy Kelley

Most people believe that students perform better in well-funded schools and that public education should provide a level playing field for children, however this is provided through local taxes, and state money. This can generate large funding differences. I am not willing to tolerate inadequate funding for teachers. This tradition of funding through local taxes has its advantages when living in small towns. Natick is growing rapidly and the school system can’t keep up. Natick Schools have a host of responsibilities to meet the needs of students and not enough additional dollars have been allocated for teachers. Better funded schools attract higher level teachers, more experience, and in turn seems to generate better achievement among students, better funded schools are often able to reduce class size. Smaller classes generate better achievement, especially in the early grades. Disadvantaged students would suffer when attending a school with inadequate funding. Equity in public school funding can be intense. We must put a lot of effort into a solution, with support from our legislators to secure state funds.

One savings may be to let teachers create and plan instruction rather than purchasing programs. Be frugal when purchasing technology, less materials will save money. School departments can save money by doing less state testing, only do essential ones. Trimming the fat where needed not affecting teachers. Reduce, reuse, recycle and take it to heart. Do we have duplicate jobs that we may look at? We are very top heavy and this needs to be addressed. Have administration take an extra week of unpaid furloughs (not teachers) to fill in on needed tasks. Ask volunteers to help from the community.

Page 3 of 3 -
Ask administration to forgo a pay increase, remember this is about education not personal gain. Help your educators out.

Step up for Natick Students!

Paul Laurent

This is the fundamental question that all towns face in times of economic hardship; Natick is not alone. However, Natick has not had nearly the kind of struggle that other towns have had since the recession. We have been fortunate that Natick has not had sweeping layoffs in years past, indeed the district has remained steady and a sought after place to work. That is because our schools have been well managed by the long-term vision of the Administration, the proactive oversight of the School Committee and through timely and critical investment by the town.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the health of a town and the health of its schools. A good school system ensures steady (even increasing) residential property values. Because of sound fiscal practices, Natick has been well served to date; but we now face some challenges regarding increasing enrollments and making sure we have enough teachers for our students to get a quality education.

The Administration, through sound business practices, has worked within its budget to accommodate the shifting needs of the district and will no doubt continue to. Discussions about the future needs of the town, the root of the question, are taking place between the various boards and committees to examine the wider issues and potential solutions. This is a crucial discussion that requires input from across the town.

Ultimately, it is the town that decides how to fund the district’s needs. The rhetorical question we face is: what kind of school system do we want - one that remains on the upward trajectory as we have been for the last few years or one where students and teachers struggle to achieve? I know which one most of my neighbors would like, as would I, hence why I seek re-election.